World Bank in a recently released report projected that Bangladesh is on right track in eradicating extreme poverty by 2030.
The report, titled “Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2018: Piecing Together the Poverty Puzzle,” showed that of the world’s 736 million extreme poor in 2015, 368 million or half of the total, lived in just five countries: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh.
According to the report, Bangladesh has 3% of the global extreme poor population. Among others, India accounts for 24%, Nigeria 12%, Congo 7% and Ethiopia accounts for 4%.
In line with the World Bank definition, people who live on less than $1.90 a day, are considered as extremely poor. At present, the study says the daily income of 16.2 million people is less than $1.90 in Bangladesh.
According to the global creditor’s assessment, however, the number of Bangladesh’s extreme poor will come down to 0.83 million by 2030, along with India.
India, with over 170 million poor people in 2015, has the highest number of extreme poor people and accounts for nearly a quarter of global poverty.
The report also projected that extreme poverty throughout Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia, will remain relatively steady, a projection that is “indicative of the broader uneven progress globally.”
To make significant continued progress towards the global target of reducing extreme poverty to less than 3% by 2030, large reductions in poverty in these five countries will be crucial, said the global lender.
In the South Asia region, four out of five extreme poor reside in India. Despite a poverty rate of 13.4%, India’s large population of 1.3 billion results in a high number of extreme poor.
The report states that over time, many of the countries with high poverty numbers, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kenya, and Nigeria, have grown their economies out of low income-country status and are now on the way to becoming middle income countries.
